Olyphant woman rises from welfare to Columbia University administrator

Jason Farmer / staff photographer
Eileen Evanina, M.S., C.R.N.A., is director of the nurse anesthesia program at Columbia University's School of Nursing. She believes any goal can be achieved through hard work.

There was a time in her life when college seemed like an utterly unobtainable prospect for Eileen Evanina, M.S., C.R.N.A.

Which makes her present situation all the more remarkable. For the past four years, the Olyphant mother of four has served as the director of the nurse anesthesia program at Columbia University's School of Nursing.

Mrs. Evanina spends the first part of her week at the Ivy League school's Manhattan campus teaching, administering and taking courses toward her doctorate in nursing practice, which she's expected to complete in 2012. Then, after finishing her work on Wednesday, she takes a Martz bus back to the area and spends the rest of her work week at Northeastern Gastroenterology Associates in Honesdale.

Saturdays are spent correcting papers, and Sunday she's back on the bus to New York.

The pace is hectic, but Mrs. Evanina takes deep satisfaction in working at one of the premier universities in America.

Right decision

"It's a great job, and a great university. It's one of the best decisions I ever made," Mrs. Evanina said. "It's very rewarding, especially when you get to see (the students) graduate."

The daughter of an Air Force cook, Mrs. Evanina spent the early years of her life living at bases in Kansas, Mississippi, Maine and even Guam. Back then, the nomadic life wasn't for her.

"I didn't really like it," she said. "I felt like I didn't have people to grow up with. I was always looking for friends."

When she was 16, her parents, the late Stephen and Shirley Youshock, decided to move back to their native Olyphant. Mrs. Evanina completed high school at Mid Valley Secondary Center, but that looked to be the end of her formal education.

"My father would say, 'You have to be rich to go to college.' And that a woman couldn't go to college. You were supposed to get married and raise the kids," she said.

So, at 19, she married her high school sweetheart. Within a few years, though, she was divorced with two very young sons, Michael and Christopher Pisanchyn. With no real job prospects, she went on welfare and moved into the projects.

"Being on welfare, it was embarrassing," she said.

One day, she was dropping the kids off at daycare when she saw a young couple wearing medical scrubs. When she asked them what they did for a living, they replied that they were nursing students at Wilkes University.

"What are you, rich?" she asked them. No, they explained, they were your classic poor college students.

It was then that Mrs. Evanina thought, "Hey, maybe I could go to college."

Despite having taken business courses in high school, she was admitted into Wilkes' nursing program. Four years later, she graduated with the highest G.P.A. in her major.

"It made me feel good, made me feel important," said Mrs. Evanina, who at that time had just met her second husband, John, with whom she had two more children, Sarah and John. (Sarah and Christopher have both followed their mom into the nursing profession.)

Her first job was at Moses Taylor Hospital. It was there that she decided to continue her schooling and become a nurse anesthetist. Two years later, she had her Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) certification, then went back and got her master's degree in nursing.

For years, she served as the director of nurse anesthesia program at Wyoming Valley Healthcare Center in Wilkes-Barre. During her time there, she graduated over 400 students.

In addition to her work, Mrs. Evanina found time to serve as a member of the Mid Valley School Board. However, two years in, she had to give up her position after landing the job at Columbia, which she thought she had little chance of getting upon first applying for it.

Ivy League?

"I didn't even know what Ivy League meant," Mrs. Evanina said, only half-jokingly.

Now she's at the point where she's thinking of buying an apartment in New York and retiring there. Not bad for someone "who was told you have to be rich and can't be a girl to go to college," she said.

Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com

TO NOMINATE A NORTHEAST WOMAN, please submit requests via e-mail to lifestyles @timesshamrock.com or mail them to Northeast Woman Nominations, The Sunday Times, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503. Please include the woman's name, address and the reason the reader feels the woman is deserving. Those submitting need to include their name and a daytime phone number.Meet Eileen Evanina, M.S., C.R.N.A.

At home: Resides in Olyphant with her husband, John. She has four children, Michael and Christopher Pisanchyn, Sarah Gombar and John Evanina, and three grandchildren. She is the daughter of the late Stephen and Shirley Youshock. She has two brothers, Stephen and Richard, and a sister, Sharon.

At work: Director of the nurse anesthesia program at Columbia University's School of Nursing

Inspiration: Her children.

Aspirations: Getting her doctorate, writing research grants and getting published

Quote: "Anyone can achieve the impossible. You don't need to be smart, you just need to work hard."

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